Monday, September 10, 2007

J. D. Riso at Identity Theory

J. D. Riso recently had a travel piece about Taiwan's infamous Snake Alley published at Identity Theory. Being the most traveled person I'll ever know (lately she moved from the island of New Caledonia to Poland) and a hugely talented writer, all of her travel writing is worth tracking down. Here's the opening to "No Taking Pictures":

“Here. Eat this,” my sister Stephanie says as she plucks a small green fruit-looking thing from a street vender’s cart.

I look at it for a moment. The middle of the fruit is hollowed out and stuffed with a white paste.

“It’s betel nut. The white stuff is a stimulant. Some say it’s cocaine, but I doubt it. It does give you a good rush, though.” She waits. “Don’t worry. It won’t stain your teeth red, unless you mix it with this green mustard paste.”

I take a breath and pop it into my mouth. At least she hasn’t tried to make me eat the fish eyes or chicken feet for sale in the night markets of Taipei.

So you think your last vacation was a challenge? Well, check out Riso's Truk Lagoon: Graveyard in Paradise over at Eclectica. That should ease your dissatisfaction with customer service.

Hopefully we'll be seeing a collection of travel writing from J. D. Riso in the near future.

4 comments:

Thanks so much for the mention here, Josh, and also for the help you gave me on both of these travel pieces. I stop by and read your blog often, though I'm not much of a "commenter" these days. Na Zdrowie!

About Me

My writing has been published or is forthcoming in New York Tyrant, elimae, Phoebe, Apostrophe Cast, Keyhole Magazine, Lamination Colony, Action Yes, Word Riot, Barrelhouse, Opium, and elsewhere.
I review books and literary magazines and am a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
I can be contacted at joshmaday [at] gmail.com.